The Mathematics of Love

Set in the lobby of the infamous Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, The Mathematics of Love by Chicana author, Cherrie Moraga made an initial workshop production performance on May 5, 2016 at Stanford University’s Nitery Theater.
The play opens in the lobby of the Biltmore with the main character Peaches. Peaches is a Mexican woman who is diagnosed with early-stage . Peaches waits in the lobby with her Anglo Husband Poppa, anxiously waiting on the arrival of their son God. God has planned a reunion and anniversary party for his parents at the Biltmore. While Peaches and Poppa wait, their middle-aged daughter arrives at the hotel. The daughter of Peaches and Poppa is only referred to in the un-published version of the play as Daughter and mediates the bickering between Peaches and Poppa. As Peaches waits, she doses off and dreams of her early life working as a maid in a hotel very similar to the Biltmore. Within her dreams, she meets Malinxe, a time traveling indigenous Mexican women. Malinxe is wearing an intriguing combination of indigenous Mexican garb with a Louis Vuitton bag. Malinxe leads Peaches into an indigenous past recounting 500 years of Spanish Colonialism, seen as a move towards assimilation into white culture. The term was also used towards “Chicanas who allied themselves with feminism””. Moraga discusses heterosexuality as both a sexual interaction and a system that perpetuates heteronormative behavior. Moraga, a homosexual herself, presents the character of Daughter in a way which disrupts the heteronormative Latin culture held by her mother Peaches.
New Mestiza and Cultural Assimilation
Mestiza theory is a term originally coined by fellow Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldua refers to a border consciousness that emerges in Mexican immigrants moving to the United States. As mentioned by Yvonne Yabrro-Bejarano’s work Cultural Studies, “Difference,” and the Non-Unitary Subject, border consciousness emerges from “a subjectivity structured by multiple determinants - gender, class, sexuality and contradictory membership in competing cultures and racial identities”. The New Mestiza consciousness is the breaking of a stereotype and gender-role that is created for female Mexican-American women. The character of Malinche in The Mathematics of Love is a representation of the New Mestiza consciousness as she takes on her indigenous roots while assimilating into “white culture.” Moraga as an educated Chicana breaks the social norm by getting an education and mastering the English language. Her then using her new knowledge to bring attention upon her culture is a representation of the New Mestiza consciousness.
Notoriety of Chicana Literature
Cherrie Moraga is noted as a popular Chicana writer, part of the Chicana Feminist movement. Her involvement with the Chicana movement and her literary exposes detailing the struggles Chicana women experience led her to winning the 1986 American Book Awards and in 2016 the Independent Publisher Book Award for Anthologies.
During the 1960’s and 1970’s, feminist Chicana’s raised issues of gender tension and conflict they were experiencing in the Chicano movement. These women eventually came to lead the Chicana feminist movement through the 1970’s and 1980’. As discussed in Alma Garcia’s The Development of Chicana Feminist Discourse, through the 1970’s and 1980’s, “Chicana feminists addressed specific issues affecting Chicanas as women of color in the United States.” Chicana feminists developed ideology in combatting through collective effort the struggles against “racial, class and gender oppression<ref name=":2" />”.

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